Tackling global tax avoidance and evasion: World experts to meet at a high-level conference

The European Commission, in cooperation with the EU Tax Observatory, is hosting a three-day high-level conference on the consequences of global tax avoidance and evasion. This online event, starting today, will bring together academics, policy-makers and stakeholders, to both assess the magnitude of global tax avoidance and tax evasion, and find ways to address it. This topic is particularly important as the EU recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. As President Ursula von der Leyen said in the 2021 State of the Union: “Asking big companies to pay the right amount of tax is not only a question of public finances, but above all a question of basic fairness.” Experts will discuss how to shed further light on unfair global tax practices and to inform policy makers with science-based evidence. Paolo Gentiloni, Commissioner for Economy, who will attend the conference on Wednesday, said: “To fight tax avoidance and evasion we need relevant and usable data, maximum transparency and top-level expertise to inform our policy-making. This conference will contribute to that by bringing together some of the brightest minds in Europe and beyond.” In May 2021, the Commission published the Communication on Business Taxation for the 21st Century. This sets out a long-term vision to provide a fair and sustainable business tax environment in a single corporate tax rulebook for Europe – the ‘Business in Europe: Framework for Income Taxation’ (BEFIT), as well as an ambitious tax agenda for the next two years. Further information on the conference is available online.